Schattman granted $650K to study climate change impacts on wild blueberries
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded $650,000 to a University of Maine project investigating the impacts of climate change on wild blueberry ecosystems and economics. Rachel Schattman, Assistant professor of Sustainable Agriculture at the School of Food and Agriculture and Mitchell Center Faculty Fellow, is the principal investigator of the study.
Wild blueberry fields provide important crops for the state of Maine. They also support ecosystems by providing water regulation, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, pollination and food for wildlife. Climate change is altering these wild blueberry agroecosystems, but the exact effects are unclear.
The project will investigate how probable future climate scenarios will impact the ecosystem services provided by wild blueberry fields. The researchers, including graduate and undergraduate students, will conduct climate manipulation experiments at the Wyman’s Wild Blueberry Research and Innovation Center in Old Town. They will test temperature and precipitation to see how it impacts soil-water dynamics, crop health, the relationship to root fungi, pollinators and disease.
Brian McGill, professor at the School of Biology and Ecology and the Mitchell Center is a collaborating researcher on the project.